Three People Infected With Lassa Fever in Germany

Experts say there's an unusually widespread activity of the virus in West Africa

Three people have been infected with Lassa fever after having come in contact with an American who died of the disease in Germany last month, NBC News reported.

"This is now the first documented outbreak of Lassa fever virus outside of Africa," the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's federal disease control agency, said in a statement.

The patient who died was a medical director of a missionary hospital in Togo. The newly infected people include a mortician who handled his body.

Lassa is carried by rodents and people can catch it when rodent droppings or urine get onto food or into living areas. There is widespread activity of the virus in West Africa, and there is an ongoing outbreak in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. 

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